One year ago, on Aug. 12, 2024, Roscoe resident Gil Wierschke, 76, walked down the driveway from his home, south of Roscoe Road. Police have not been able to locate him since.
More about Gil and the search
- Gil Wierschke still missing: “The wondering is hard to deal with”
In the 1960s, as a teenager, Gil Wierschke had joined the Army and proudly served in Vietnam. He had worked for years at the Chrysler plan in Belvidere. But in the previous year, his Alzheimer’s disease had become more severe. His daughter April says, “He knew who he was, who his family was, where they lived, etc.” But without help, he could no longer do what he had always done well: dress himself, use a phone, or navigate somewhere. Still, he was proud of being able to walk long distances. In his younger days, if he had car trouble, he could walk home from the Chrysler plant after work – a distance of almost 20 miles.
The night he disappeared, Gil was organizing the garage with his brother-in-law at his home in the 10000 block of Marblewing Lane. His brother-in-law had warned Gil not to trip over the boxes. According to Gil’s wife, Cindy, Gil replied, ‘Watch me,’ “hopped over the boxes and walked out into the driveway.” A neighbor’s security camera caught him walking south. If he had gone north, someone might have seen him walking along busy Roscoe Road. But south of Clearwing, there are only cornfields.
Cindy says, “By the time I realized he was gone, it was 8:30 and starting to get dark. I looked for him for about a half hour and then called the police. I think that because it was so dark out it hampered search efforts.”
Roscoe police immediately began looking for Gil by car, on foot, and by air, eventually using heat-sensing drones, trained dogs, divers, and sonar. They had the help of Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office, Boone County Sheriff’s Office and the Illinois Search and Rescue Council (ISARC). Police searched the river from the bridge to Ventura Blvd in Machesney Park. A plane flew over the whole area using thermal imaging capable of detecting a human body anywhere on land, but found nothing.
On Sunday, Aug. 24, 2024, more than 40 people met at Roscoe Middle School to form search parties. One group walked down the Stone Bridge Trail, calling “Gil!” and looking under trees. During the search, Cindy and her daughter bravely helped at the command center with extra water and a sign-in book for the searchers. But they couldn’t bear to join the search themselves. They couldn’t know what they might find…